The Study of Pentelic Marble in Pure Form and in Polluted Monuments by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy

Abstract

A genuine physicochemical method of Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy has become a versatile research tool in the rehabilitation technologies of monuments. A spectroscopic technique in order to study the effects of aging, adverse weather, and pollution on the monuments is presented. Topical applications in the conservation of monuments and prime research in order to study the effects of aging are impressive illustrations of the high evolution of the technique. FT-IR spectroscopy has established itself as a powerful method for the rapid identification and differentiation of materials used by the artists or contractor-architects to describe and present the monuments as historic structures. It has become one of the best nondestructive techniques in the progress of basic research in sciences, in artwork, and in weather and natural effects on marbles for the various defects and the identification of pigments. At a molecular level, the method has advanced the vibrational problem of the chemical bonds of the molecules and the assignment of bond frequencies to chemical characteristic group frequencies, as vOH, vCO, vNH₂, $v{\mathrm{PO}}_2^{-}$, vO^2-,vC-C, vC-S, and vS-S, stretching frequencies resulting from inorganic or organic colors as well as from proteins and DNA and the microorganisms on the surface of the monuments. The present work sets out to give a review of current examples on the analytical potential of FT-IR spectroscopy and its application on Pentelic marble.